Cautionary Tales – The Truth About Hansel and Gretel
Cautionary Tales is written by me, Tim Harford, with Andrew Wright. It is produced by Ryan Dilley and Marilyn Rust. The sound design and original music is the work of…
Cautionary Tales – Stalling for Survival: A Lonely Fight Against a Deadly Medicine
In 1960, FDA scientist Frances Oldham Kelsey is tasked with approving an application for a mild sedative to be sold in America. The drug is popular across Europe and is…
Cautionary Tales – Paradise Poisoned: How Utopias Fall Apart
Dore and Friedrich make an unconventional couple, united by their contempt for shoes, root vegetables and, above all, society. In 1929 they leave Germany and begin anew on the deserted…
Cautionary Tales – The Shark That Ate Hollywood
Steven Spielberg thought his career was finished. He was behind schedule, his actors were fighting, the crew were mutinous and worst of all, his shark was broken. It looked like…
The etymology of “earthling”
and its interesting ending via Jess Zafarris
The Quiet Storm
How a radio show born at a small college station in DC and dedicated to smooth, romantic love songs transformed black radio and reshaped love lives across the country.
The Deaf Composer: How Beethoven wrote music he couldn’t hear
What happens when one of history’s greatest composers begins to lose the very sense he relies on most? In this episode, we explore how Ludwig van Beethoven continued to create…
Super Mario Bros: Koji Kondo’s 8-Bit Masterpiece
From the springy jump sound to the iconic Overworld Theme, the sound of Super Mario Bros. is instantly recognizable. With just five lo-fi audio channels and 40 kilobytes of space,…
Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age
In Four Lost Cities, acclaimed science journalist Annalee Newitz takes readers on an entertaining and mind-bending adventure into the deep history of urban life. Investigating across the centuries and around…
History Extra podcast Zoot suits, mashers & New Romantics: the evolution of the dandy
From zoot suiters and mods, to mashers and Congolese sapeurs, since the early 19th century, fashionable male subcultures have popped up across the globe. Speaking to Ellie Cawthorne, Peter Andersson…